Page:The Young Auctioneers.djvu/310

294 threatened to shoot the proprietor. I suppose he was bent on getting the pistol to do it with. Just you come with me, and I'll give you a chance to sober up."

The tipsy man remonstrated, and tried to make the policeman believe that the rows at the hotel and at the store were only jokes. But the officer would not listen, and took the drunken individual to the station-house, where, later on, he was sentenced to thirty days in the county jail for disturbing the peace.

"That's another side of the auction business," said Matt, after he and Andy were left alone. "And I must confess it's a side I don't like. It was lucky you came along when you did."

"An intoxicated man never makes a good customer, Matt. Some store-keepers try to get his money away from him, but, as for me, I want nothing to do with him."

The blow on the shoulder had not injured Matt, and soon the incident, exciting as it had been, was almost forgotten. Andy had struck a bargain, as he termed it, in the purchase of his new overcoat, and he wished Matt to go off at once and get one like it.

"They are selling about two dozen off at bottom price," he said. "And you want to lose no time if